If you can start the day without caffeine.If you can get going without pep pills.If you can always be cheerful ignoring aches and pains.If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles.If you can eat the same food every day and be grateful for it.If you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time.If you can overlook it when those you love take it out on you when through no fault of yours something goes wrong.If you can take criticism and blame without resentment.If you can ignore a friend’s limited education and never correct him.If you can resist treating a rich friend better than a poor friend.If you can face the world without lies and deceit.If you can conquer tension without medical help.If you can relax without liquor.If you can sleep without the aid of drugs.

…..Then you are probably the family dog!

Today wasn’t a good one for the family “dawgs” in Washington state.

Our relatives in Oregon are devoted Oregon Ducks fans. Especially, my nephew Jimmy Ford. He must have been happy today when the Ducks beat the Washington Huskies by 40 points — 56 to 16. Except it was like beating a dead underdawg.

To cheer everybody up, my granddaughter Gretchen produced a little video for the occasion. It features the 13 dawgs in our Seattle family. They can’t win football games either, but everybody keeps forgiving them anyway.